96 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



after a bird has molted on old feathers or a feather has been pulled 

 Tt takes somewhat longer to grow a main tail or wing feather. 



Growing chickens produce about three sets of plumage in their 

 growing year. To meet the needs of their enlarging bodies, they 

 constantly are losing feathers and growing new ones which are built 

 on a larger scale and are firmer and more durable. 



The second crop of feathers is stronger and better webbed. The 

 structure of the adult crop differs considerably in the sexes. It 

 appears that the male character of plumage is closely associated 

 with the development of the reproductive organs. This opinion is 

 borne out by the fact that hens have been known to molt into male 

 plumage as a result of a degenerate and pathological condition of 

 the ovaries. 



A hen that assumed male plumage is described and illustrated in 

 a bulletin by Cole and Lippincott, Wisconsin and Kansas agricultural 

 colleges. This hen had a large ovarian tumor. Female plumage wa? 

 again grown after an implantation of ovarian tissue from a healthy, 

 normal pullet. 



The chick feathers may be quite differently colored from what one 

 would expect from seeing pictures of adult birds, but the beginner 

 should not be discouraged and he should not trust himself to cull out 

 the birds until they are at least six months old, when he may judge 

 their quality with some accuracy and satisfaction. Even the Partridge 

 cockerels may then show red in the breast; the Columbian pullets 

 also may show gray or black in the back. Before rejecting these 

 birds as faulty colored, look under the surface at the young, fresh 

 new feathers that are coming; judge the merit of the bird's plumage 

 by adult feathers that he eventually is to carry on the surface as 

 indicated by the quality of the last crop of feathers coming in. 



The Barred Plymouth Rock carries barring as a chick as well as 

 when mature. It is not uncommon to find very straight bars in the 

 second-growth feathers of the cockerels. Some amateurs make it a 

 point to exhibit Barred Rock cockerels that are full of such "chick 

 feathers" and then emphasize the wonderful quality of their birds. 

 Occasionally one sees in print an attractive feather chart of straight- 

 barred cockerel feathers which are nothing more than reproductions 

 of chick feathers. 



A chicken grows two crops of feathers before it receives its final 

 adult plumage. At first the structure of the cockerel's feathers is 

 precisely like those of the chick pullet. 



Since the very young 1 cockerels and pullets are feathered alike to 

 a marked degree, some breeders have selected the best colored male 

 chicks to be the sires of their pullets, and then bred them regardless 

 of what objectionable features their color may have exhibited when 

 they were mature. The point is worth noting, for the practice of 

 picking pullet breeders in this way is becoming more general. 



The Molt. It is generally conceded, and borne out by many trap- 



